In Development

Earlier product designs tested with CHO cells contained rigid 3D printed parts to mimic the shape of the final design and this was followed by a bag version tested in a batch CHO cell culture. The final design is a simple bag-style design with a liquid diffuser and a gas sparger and no internal moving parts and a hollow fiber for cell retention for the continuous perfusion mode.   The bag is sealed to the plastic rigid base via a custom designed film to plastic heat sealing tool and the bag portion has port plates sealed into it.  The bag portion incorporates a number of key components including ports to receive the single use pH and DO probes, ports to support the liquid diffuser, and additional ports.  The rigid base contains the thermo-well for a temperature probe, the liquid drain, a port for the liquid return line, and the gas inlet to the gas sparger.

Both the counter-current flow of gas rising from the sparger and liquid flowing to the bottom of vessel and the air liquid interface of the fountain enhance mixing and Kla.  Extensive design testing and optimization have been completed using miscellaneous tools such as 3D printing, water runs to measure Kla, extensive physical measurements with different sensors. In addition, three CHO cell culture runs have been completed over the different design iterations in conjunction with Jefferson Institute for Bioprocessing at Thomas Jefferson University.